Julian Cope, I hate you, motherf....er!

... yes, I hate you... before I bought, few years ago your "Krautrocksampler" book I was grooving on... ancient music, viola da gamba, lute, theorbo, chitarrone, harpsichord... long time gone freaking out on Capt. Beefheart, Frank Zappa, Tangerine Dream, Amon Duul, never went deep again on this teenager-music I used to listen to 30+ years ago, you bastard...
... it's simply innatural, too weird to suffer of such a tsunami in listening, at my venerable age, to Michael Rother, Neu!, Ash Ra Tempel, Amon Duul, Popol Vuh, Can, Faust, Kraftwerk, Harmonia, Cluster, Sergius Golowin... Walter Wegmuller... WALTER WEGMULLER, again!!!
Is it possible I lived all these years without listening to this (apparently a) pastiche where ALL the Cosmic Couriers, Klaus Schulze, Manuel Gottsching, Witthuser and Westrupp, all these geniuses are giving their souls to the most mysterious music ever?
I almost forgot the emotions such a musical exposure was able to give to me.
Since I purchesed your book, Julian, I simply re-traced all the records in yr. 50 discs 2die4 list... maybe 30 or so I already owned, the rest, well... I've been amazed, puzzled, astonished... purchasing what I missed decades ago was an amusement, better, a rebirth... these discs aren't audiophile, they're not collectors items, per se... they're humble waxes containing a light, a time machine of a time full of "hope", of "love"... the Berlin's Wall was still up, yet strongly aiming to go down... smoking dope wasn't yuppie, or cool or relaxing... BUT broadening consciousness! Ah!
... as I often say... I don't need dope, anymore: I produce my own whenever needed... maybe a by-product of such a fondness to this music, long afternoon grooving on Hosianna Mantra and In den Garten Pharaos et al...
... BUT you, Julian... how did you did this... a respectful, respected guy whose music room, right now, seems a pagan church where this Music from the past, TAROT by Wegmuller, resonates with stars and sun and spring and love and hope... how's possible this miracle?
You simply re-discovered the hipstest of musics... you were late, BUT sincere... I remember that in 1980 nobody was listening to this outdated music... Krautrock discs were given for free, heavily discounted at best.
... now, when Tour de France by Kraftwerk or Sergius Golowin, or Tangerine Dream are spinning on my turntable I feel a strenght and a positiveness too seldom experienced... Tago Mago by Can is almost painful, as Yeti by Amon Duul, both naked youth in music, hope for a better world but needing to blame elders and old world and habits... Ege Bamyasi or "Die Sterne" on Tarot by (again, yes...) Wegmuller is... my food and beverage, my soundtrack and amniotic fluid, where I can regenerate myself, I'm fish and fetus, dead and re-born, feel a different heartbeat inside me and in outer world...
... so, for this reason, Julian, please... f..k you... I hate you!
People should be prepared to this all, you... you... and stop smiling on that picture!

Music and farting?!?! A crazy marriage or... why not?!?!

ROBERT WYATT... End of an Ear, Rock Bottom, Dondestan and Dondestan (Revised), Old Rottenhat, Shleep, Ruth is Stranger than Richard... last evening, after a couple of days recovering from a (light) flu... I got a massive brain and heart massage from this stellar, one-of-a-kind musical genius.
From "Las Vegas Tango" on the seminal, difficult, almost a painful listening experience End of an Ear to "Alifib" on Rock Bottom and many others special pieces, RW always had this very unique "surfing" skill with his vocal harmonies... anticipating a phrase, giving a completely different texture at every chorus... alongating the bridge in an endless variation... mind it's never tired with RW's music.
He's the poet of paper-waste and of wind on his veranda... a continuous haiku-like hommage to every-day-life... sort of giving dignity to a dying apple or to a stained wall in the kitchen.
He's been all his life a man of granite-like friendships... Hugh Hopper, Phil Manzanera, Brian Eno, Nick Mason, his beloved sound engineer Jaime at Gallery studios and... Alfie!

Alfreda (Alfie) Benge has been "there" since the tragic wheel chair end of RW as a drummer in Soft Machine and Machine Mole and rebirth of RW as a brand new Musician, a Total Artist eons beyond his time... Alfie has been RW's best friend, inspiration, a visual artist, a dreamer artist/painter and a lover.

After, for some unknown reason, snobbing and disregarding it, I purchased - and in extra, super-duper deluxe double vinyl (but with only 3 sides of music...) - the last Robert Wyatt's Comicopera effort, with astounding art (cover) works by Robert's wife, Alfreda Benge.

Well, what can I say... I apologize with RW... it's a fantastic record, full of music, various and EXTREMELY WELL RECORDED, sound-wise, it's spectacular... music-wise... it's more jazzy, more experimental than Shleep... more on Rock Bottom vein... SO, a Masterpiece!

Buy it, pals... Robert Wyatt is an humble genius and a very sincere artist... a rare voice and a Man of great integrity, politically as musically.


Again: audio-wise, his recordings are very often of superb quality... as a plus I sang on Robert's lyrics as I often do... singing in perfect, childish happy unison and loneliness is... like farting: everyone does, but nobody talk about it.

Only among friends both natural body/human expressions are sort-of a shared well-kept secret... reminds me of hyppopotamus defecating in group I saw on National Geographic channell. Maybe also for men, something ancient, a social bonding practice, I guess, but also, in this VERY case a dadaist... maybe a pataphisical comparison, which, I trust, mr. Wyatt himself wouldn't blame at all.

... but when I... sing along any given most beloved record of mine - i.e. Michael Hedges, Pandit Pran Nath, Bert Jansch, Marius van Altena, Nusrah Fateh Ali, Tim Buckley (badly using falsetto to try to reach higher Tim's pitch) and counteless others in my voice range... well, I'm deeply into Music... and I understand "WHY" I love it and understand and praise the merits of my audio system as an emotional machine, not simply gears, but a Time and Heart Machine.

I wish you all... no, not farting ... BUT enjoying music, EVERY music you like.

Are imperfections a plus, something to search and cherish?

... and life and music imperfections? IMO, an interesting interaction field, indeed.
I was listening few moments ago to an old Claudio Rocchi disk, as I'm so fond of the original 1971 vinyl record I only listen to it on special occasions... with friends, when I'm happy, when I want to listen to filterless, untamed analog Progressive Better World, when Imagination and Braveness in Music was paramount... well: Claudio Rocchi's Volo Magico nr. 1 on thick Ariston vinyl or on Japan issue nice-disk replicating original strangely fold out cover isn't a perfect studio recording, not a perfectly produced Top 10 hit, Madonna-like product... some inspired, hot musician and friends had a recordist friend using a primitive mixer and a (now) cheap Revox' RtoR spinning... the sound is zest-like as a June morning in Connemara... 6 & 12 strings acoustic guitars, voices, mellotron, cheap upright pianos, a friend playing an incredible solo Gibson hollow-body electric bass - something weird'n'rare now as yesterday... nothing more, BUT the music is so powerful and deep and new it stood the almost 40 years hiatus to these very modern days as brand-new!
The mixing, sound-on-sound, multitracking technique is far from perfect... but these young musicians "did it"!
This miracle happens seldomly... early Incredible String Band's, Popol Vuh's Hosianna Mantra, Yeti by Amon Duul, some late, Daniel Lanois' produced His Bobness discs, early Neil Young's, David Crosby's If I could only remember my Name... technique, recording are secondary to the deepness and easyness of music flowing, flooding directly and misteriously from Musicians hearts.
A comparison in female beauty... Winona Ryder, better yet... Uma Thurman isn't a perfect woman... but her strange profile, her nose, her class, charme, statue-like body... the almost magical blend of all this, plus the impalpable breath of intelligence, irony and life experiences... voilà: one of most beautiful (public) woman ever...

Some cold, super-perfect productions... too many to name... never get this God breath, this uniqueness... in rock or ancient music... the coldness in Kenneth Gilbert's harpsichord or Ton Koopmann's crazyness, Leonhardt or Clemencic's approach - academy voices vs. gipsy, natural voices... what's the one "giving more" to listener... is the silence between movements, the absence of strings noises or, rather, the life musician was able to infuse to his performance?

Life is a fractal-like affaire: between white and black there are zillions colours shades and nuances... definitely, Beauty is on same vein and you cannot lie to your D.N.A.!

As Robbie Basho wrote on "Song of the Stallion" liner-notes: " I was asked to sum up my philosophy of life and music... "my" philosophy is quite simple: soul first, technique later, or "Better drink wine from hands than water from a pretty cup", of course the ultimate is wine from a pretty cup!"

... again: one of the most beautiful girlfriend I had in my teens had a slightly broken tooth in her soooo beautiful smile... when she grew up she fixed it and - she also knew it - loosed her uniqueness... a sad story.
Like an overproduced disc...

Music, Audio and Cinema: how would you...

... visually describe your musical and audio adventure in a (short) movie? An impossible task?!?

In Greece they did it... BUT, a non-audio lunatic wouldn't resist more than few frames... too boring, too self-assuming and unwitty: I'm missing some dust among tubes, an ineluttable evil, and these audio-salon items look a little "yuppie", almost emasculated in their dust-free appearance... Yes, I'm a bastard!

For trying... yes, for this only: "chapeau!" to the director... but the content - also when reaching some amusement when people is confessing an addiction and the costs of their musical toys (the wives faces are spectacular and worth a view!!!) is, IMO and in some moments, quite embarassing... this people is trying to describe the reason of their involvements... but money spent is not a good topic or THE reason for spending big bucks on audio and music related gears... the one on the movie with Tannoy's is better than others reaching the core... he says he loves feeling like conductor in Covent Garden... a good start and serious stuff, here: we're talking about time-machines and tele-transportation, don't you?!?!

The MOST intriguing, deep, involving, moving music related movie in my very experience was, some years ago, "Jurji" - see a previous related post on this very Blog - it was a masterpiece... the relationship between a young violinist and a severe teacher (the father)... genius and madness... I know: it's not directly audio-related, but nonetheless it's a rare movie where music is central to the narration and on target in trying to explain the mistery of music as a palpable entity.

Another apparently silly approach I jumped in while YouTube's browsing: Tim Buckley's "Lorca"... a 9 minutes piece, strange, beautiful... for 9 minutes the (cheap) camera remains on vinyl record spinning on turntable platter with a foreground Californian-with-palm window landscape... it's dreamy, weird, almost extraterrestrial, in suggesting the always here, old mistery of groove and diamond needle sexual intercurse... a genius!

In the impossibility to find a rare Tim's performance, the YouTube poster, clearly fond of his music... took the risk to be blamed and... again... he did it.

The lesson: when you love someone/something, trying to badly, but fondly expressing it is FAR better than the silence.... also if: "There is no scientific proof of the existence of Music".

... and you?

Music: serious vs. boring vs. enriching vs. pleasant

Some thoughts on my Roman Bessnow's forum recent exposure... like (many) others I lurked in his nice forum and read posts and get new inspiration on some overlooked classic music and conductors... I also wrote some posts, but, as we say in Italy "I sort-of had the feeling I tasted a rusty chain"... i.e. - a cold, unsatisfying sense behind the WEB obscurities of someone at the other side of the computer simply too confident he almost have no peer among other men, in knowledge, skill and plain intelligence... maybe exagerating, BUT, anyway, I'm writing on the matter to point out, music-sake, about something which embarassed me deeply, while conversating with Roman on his site, about music... something which I wasn't ready to manage as said (written) from a surely brilliant mind: the concept of "serious music".
... is "serious music" only something in written form (is paper serious?), something whose composer and/or performer is deadly dead (deadly sure death is serious enough!), or music coming from an orchestra whose musicians hate dentists, so not having good time, nor smiling to do not show the ugly teeth, maybe?!?
Isn't Miles, or Grateful Dead or Bill Evans or Alex de Grassi or Bert Jansch serious enough?
Isn't a yesterday tune a today classic? Roman wrote he only considers being serious, orchestral music, preferably Barbirolli's conducted, because it's the "only music" able to show a given audio-system flaws or highlights...
Beside the sonic considerations, which sincerely bring me to disagree, I respect his thoughts, BUT from someone who (like he recently confessed) MOSTLY listen to (nice) FM waves - on his top-of-the-line Sansui tuner - from Boston-area radio stations, it appears a lazy, iPod Shuffle-like affaire... maybe lacking the freedom of the choice, thinking about "what" disc, disk, tape, FM or... whatever someone wants to listen to, what mood someone needs or likes in that very moment... that's the "freedom" in music which makes it so human... where is the joy of listening, instead of being "serious"... Well, I sure love being surprised, moved, but also jump like a teenager on Jerry Garcia's notes... otherwise, it reminds me something like... "Silence!!! Stop laughing and let's concentrate: we MUST have good time. it's an order!"-thing.
Saw a recent "opening" on "unserious music" (!?!) with Leonard Cohen's... a GREAT, awesome musician, a poet I'm VERY fond of... BUT... what about the rest of the world?!?!?
... that's why I'd say "some" people should go for a "Blog"-format, instead of a "Forum": an opinion is an opinion and opinions are like cocks = everyone has his own! A "Blog" is, in my opinion, a private, self-act, a buen-retiro from stress and violence of real, every day life, a positiveness bubble where it's possible to freely express, almost filterless, myself. Am I a romantic?
All the above is, SIMPLY, NOT possible anymore in most of Forums I'm aware of, where the politics of relating - i.e. - Admin vs. forumers being NOT au-pair and related power games prevails over expression and thoughts swapping among peers; thus, a question: is maybe the "Forum" as a WEB creation, dated, tired and tiring, for readers and writers, as well?
When I write in my humble, simple, maybe stupid Blog - I'm obeying to an urgence in sharing, also unread, my thoughts and I never tried to establish any Church or cohort: it's a plain & simple diary. Period.

Ali Farka Toure or the Earth Beat Music

I'm in awesome listening of a record I didn't listen for a while... it's late Ali Farka Toure "Savane" on World Circuit record label: I simply felt the need to share the joy this music gives to me.
AFT unfortunately died a couple of years ago and I'm missing him a lot... I purchased while in London in early '90s his first european issue and it was a revelation: his crude, yet exotic guitar playing, reminding echoes of African landscapes blewed my younger mind away.
This monument of African music and heritage, an hero for Malian people and all Sub-Sahara's Region: Mauritania, Mali, Burkina-Faso, Cote d'Ivoire, Niger - he made his first european appearance at a Sofia - Bulgaria folk Festival in 1968... after this una-tantum gig he wisely returned to his farm and secluded life near Niafunke village, emerging only for Radio Mali broadcasting and a bunch of African tours, down to Guinea and Burkina-Faso. Then, he sent some tapes of his music to Paris and... things changed quickly: his name spreaded among ethnic-music lovers...
AFT's playing and singing in Peul, Sonrai and Tamascheq's languages are a masterpiece, as well, and a love act to Sahara's and Niger's people... weird sounds and enchanting melodies, a blend of guitar, kora (imagine an instrument built by the musician himself... very cool: luthier and musician together... what an heavenly marriage... what an idea!) and 'ngoni, the MOST sincere singing from these ancient voices is the gift you'll obtain listening to "Savane"... also worth a careful listening the fantastic, Grammy-winning "Talking Timbuktu" w. Ry Cooder, Gatemouth Brown, John Patitucci, Jim Keltner... one of my Desert Island records ever!
From MUZE:
"Track listing:
1. Bonde
2. Soukora
3. Gomni
4. Sega
5. Amandrai
6. Lasidan
7. Keito
8. Banga
9. Ai Du
10. Diaraby

Details
Playing time: 60 min.
Producer: Ry Cooder
Distributor: Ryko Distribution
Recording type: Studio
Recording mode: Stereo
SPAR Code: n/a

Album notes
Personnel: Ali Farka Toure (vocals, acoustic & electric guitars, 6-string banjo, njarka, percussion), Ry Cooder (acoustic & electric guitars, electric slide guitar, electric mando-guitar, cumbus, mbira, marimba, tamboura, mandolin, bass, samples); Oumar Toure (vocals, congas, bongos); Hamma Sankare (vocals, calabash); Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown (electric guitar, viola); John Patitucci (acoustic bass, bass); Jim Keltner (drums).
Recorded at Ocean Way Recording Studios, Los Angeles, California in September, 1993. Includes liner notes by Nick Gold.
TALKING TIMBUKTU won the 1995 Grammy Award for Best World Music Album.
By the time your average listeners get around to the slow, elemental backbeat of "Ai Du," all of their preconceptions about chickens and eggs, roots and fruits or bluesmen and griots have been blurred and obscured by the enchanting music that makes up TALKING TIMBUKTU.
It's all in there: the droning traditional timbres of Mali in Ali Farka Toure's guitar; the deep, mysterious incantations of the Mississippi delta blues in Ry Cooder's slide work; the soulful backwoods moan of "Gatemouth" Brown's viola; the percolating rhythms of Hamma Sankare and Oumar Toure; and the earthy resonant dance of drummer Jim Keltner and bassist John Patitucci. "Ai Du" sums out to something not unlike the blues or West African music...but it's something else again--like some pan-ethnic folk music for the 21st century.
That's because TALKING TIMBUKTU is an epic cross-cultural super-session that captures the deepest spirit of music and transports it across ethnic and stylistic boundaries without demeaning the gift-giver or the gift. Ali Farka Toure's blissful melodic lines do not adhere to traditional blues form, but rather suggest a kind of pre-blues music of African origins. On a tune such as "Soukora" Toure pours out his heart to his lover, as he and Cooder playfully circle each other with bell-like chords and ornaments that sound like a curtain of electric pearls, while Toure's more vivid attack on "Amandral" echoes phrases evocative of John Lee Hooker. In truth, TALKING TIMBUKTU resists easy description. It is exquisite, mysterious music."
... indeed, all the above and more...
When I listen to last track on my old, trusty vinyl copy of this gem, "Diaraby" I can't resist and tears appear in my eyes... it's so haunting, beautiful... of a VERY complex yet soooo easy beauty... it's ancient and modern music... echoes of Bob Marley, John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters and some drone-music of the past, yet sounds always new, intriguing... it's our beloved music spring creating a space in time bubble capable of let you smell dust and dry winds from Sahara...
... almost forgetting: "Savane" and "Talking Timbuktu" are WONDERFULLY recorded and gorgeously played... don't expect some sort of "primitiveness", recorded with lesser gears: it's Earth Beat of purest breed.
Buy them... it's a friend hint!

Random listening hints... an imaginary museum for the Ear

Music isn't always a whistling-like experience... apparently "difficult" names come to my mind: Evan Parker... I saw him twice, last time two years ago in my town with Von Schlippenbach and Lovens... SUPERB music from Saturn...

I chatted with mr. Parker for some minutes and when I asked to him about the late Derek Bailey... oooops... it was like a cloud covered the sun, suddenly... they've been friends/foes all their life... anyway, both walked or are still walking on the same steep paths.

More than Evan Parker - thus I own many of his Incus, ECM and Ogun discs, I deeply enjoyed re-meeting last year, after... let me count... 'twas 1971 in Padua... 36 years ago!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ... the great, humble, strong, deep, gentle Anthony Braxton... we chatted about two special topics of both - math, as we both recently read a book: "Music of the Primes" written by Marcus du Sautoy... a book which changed my life (!?!) and which Mr. Braxton, too, appreciated and loved - and... chess, which he also quitted playing it for a long time, but always remaining very fond of the discipline involved in such a noble art!

His straightforwarded, honest approach was... IS a great lesson for me and my music, as well... he brought with him on stage a big, one-hour sandglass clock... when the last sand grain was over he stopped improvising... WOW... what a Zen exercise, i.e. -... folks, I can't play all the night, but as I like so much playing, only the Time is noble and strong and great enough to stop the Music flowing... Q.- What's the time?, as I can't see it... A.- Here it is: it's "sand" for you, right now... voilà: here is Music, here is Time, here is my humbleness and my unwilling, true human being, my essence as a Man. Chapeau... what a master-stroke, Maestro Braxton!

I loved chatting with mr. Braxton immensely... he was all sweat, still with his bass-flute and alto sax in his arms (not a light load...) and he chatted like he was smoking his pipe, relaxed on a couch.

A gentleman and, as all genius, a very "normal - head in the clouds, feet on the ground" humanly warm persona.

I own dozens of his discs and twice or so per year I take a deep breathe and, grateful, explore his infinitely various, awesome musical landscapes.

Bass' bass or the lowest note you ever listened to: salt to everyone life!

Few evenings ago, during those pleasant musical evenings with a bunch of trusty hard-core friends, we began jokingly, but soon in orgiastic-mode, a sort of survey in search for lowest recorded low note ever... the best, lowest, most musical, natural bass note to overwhelm the whole listening panel... and the results have been surprising, both from disc and diskette
Here it is a sort-of list, to begin... but the search is still open for me, my pals and to anyone interested:
Didier Malherbe - Zeff CD Tangram
incredible percussions - defined and detailed, not simply boomy sounds, and bass clarinet, tablas, gongs, down, DOWN to earthquake - the best, almost a winner, Track 2
Pierre Bensusan - Spices LP and CD CBS
a fretless bass recorded with an unbelivable trueness, harmonics, finger noises, etc. Amazing!
Koechlin - Bandar-log LP on Decca Head - percussions and full orchestra at the maximum levels. Big, BIG drum and double-basses. Superb...
Britten - Death in Venice - Double LP on Decca - Orchestra e percussions, timpany e simphonic BIG drums to be heard...!!!
Dafos - LP Reference Recordings - an evergreen classic, and a well-known TAS' falling Kodo drum test in HP hey days... listened mostly to judge Harry Pearson's good taste... VERY low sounds, as you're aware... BUT musically nasty, IMHO...
Rudolf Streicher - Bottesini - LP Telefunken - solo double-bass (with piano accompaniement) from the VERY BEST soloist ever... I'm a double-bass esoteric-music collector... own more than 60 different recordings and I'm not tired, yet... the most musical involving of the bunch - also piano low octaves are superbly captured. a perfect disc. My Best Choice.
Wendy Carlos - Beauty in The Beast - LP Audiogon (?!?) Computer Music and sampled analog sounds... weird, etc. etc... a record I so deeply LOVE... but I already talked you about it... only, must add... LOW, LOW notes...
Paul Bley - Tears on OWL 034 - the great canadian piano player, playing an Imperial Bosendorfer's... strumming, feet tapping, noises, and one of the best piano lowest register I ever listened to. Great music, too...
Shaken down to the lung, at the end of our listening session we were tired like after some miles jogging... BUT satisfied... Bass are really salt to life.

... to be continued...



... yesterday evening, following the stream... I listened to a rare underground CD by Canterbury/English Progressive veteran Pip Pyle titled "7 Year Itch"... with Barbara Gaskin , Phil Miller, Richard Sinclair and... Hugh Hopper. The record is quite various, from experimental to melodic... on Track 9 we find "L'Etat des Choses" an experimental exercise where Hugh Hopper, bassist and looper extraordinaire, almost shake the house down... very LOOOOOW bass with fuzz and loops and reversed bass lines interwoving... a very nice, intriguing little piece.
Again not only boom boom, but... modulating bass sounds.

... to be continued...

Yesterday evening... mo' bass!

While listening to the nice double cd boxset Oregon - In Moscow http://www.mymusic.com/product.asp?curr=1&myptr=galaxie&muzenbr=387191, beside the ever beautiful Klotz '700 Glen Moore double-bass, as always tuned with lower string to a mighty "C" note, in disk 2 - track 3 and 4, you'll listen to one of the very best captured double basses you'll ever heard!
Deep, ringing, full-bodied with correct amount of strings, wood, room and fingers... a dream!
Don't forget I own a century old, inherited double-bass which I unfortunately only play badly, as a beginner... and I know that a string bass isn't a boom box but an harmonically verious and complex instrument.
FANTASTIC!
... then, three more, different records: a disk and two vinyls I cherished since early '70s and '80s... vinyl first, noblesse oblige
Again by Hugh Hopper, "1984" based after the G. Orwell seminal novel... Minitrue, Miniplenty have soo perfect bass sounds, Fender Jazz Bass with fuzz, again loops, and cymbals shimmering with detail 2D4... it's not easy music, but music for the mind, a soundtrack to a world we hope we'll never see... the Day-After-like... but for our purpouses, the 35 hertz we're seeking for... nothing better to know "why" we can't live forever with a Stax F-81's speakers pair.
Later, I had a listen to a superb ECM by Steve Tibbets and Marc Johnson... "Northern Song": acoustic and electric guitars loops, congas and assorted percussions... a very very nice recording, atmospheric, yet meaty sounds. I love Steve's music... I own everything he recorded.. we're also both fond of Himalayan trekking... he contributed to a Lonely Planet's book devoted to Tibet I used myself on Tibet travelling... for a man with three twins kids - thrins, is it correct?!? - it's a miracle he find the time for all his activities.
... and finally, a disk: Christina Pluhar and L'Arpeggiata "Los Impossibles" http://www.christinapluhar.com/... ancient music, theorbo, chitarra battente and baroque guitar, big frame drums, voices, viole da gamba... the frame drums are AWESOME... a minimalist recording with two Bruel & Kijaer 4006 mikes... and voilà - musically involving and pleasing... also - as a plus - the King's Singer voices in Villancico Catalan - the disk last track - are blissful and magical as ever.



... to be continued...

I wrote:
"... and finally, a disk: Christina Pluhar and L'Arpeggiata "Los Impossibles" http://www.christinapluhar.com/... ancient music, theorbo, chitarra battente and baroque guitar, big frame drums, voices, viole da gamba... the frame drums are AWESOME... a minimalist recording made with two Bruel & Kijaer 4006 mikes... and voilà - musically involving and pleasing... also - as a plus - the King's Singer voices in Villancico Catalan - the disk last track - are blissful and magical as ever."

I was lazily re-reading the above mentioned bass' notes, when I noticed the above musical hinting... and I guess a quick add is due... on the very disc I quoted, on the last track, Villancico Catalan, a capella male singers singing like angels, I've been AMAZED in the last months from what suddenly appeared from the recording digital mist.

At the very beginning of the song, and only after I finally completed and finely tuned my (now) full Goto speakers system using IVIE IE-20B pink noise generator and IVIE IE-30A real-time analyzer, something new for my previously by-ear-only tunings, I've been able to hear a new level of details resolution previously non-audible.

There is a far, I mean FAR, burglar short noise from outside the recording venue quite present among singers voices!

For whom do not know, own or listened to this nice disc the above may sounds at least weird... but when I repeated this very test on SEVERAL friends system, also during Berlin Audio Tasting and Munchen Schall und Rauch Tasting, and in other domestic listening at friends homes and combos... WELL... I never, NEVER heard this details again... which is still, firmly "here" in my room/system.

In my music-room the IVIE 30 reads a ground-ambient noise level of 39 db (42 when the central heating system in ON...), while yesterday evening while listening at a friend music system, I measured 52-53 db... yes, now I always travel with my IVIE gears and it's quite amusing what happens using it...

Provoking: what's going on, in your opinion? It's my ears, my "cleanliness" in carefully listening, dope abuse, Laphroaig single malt drinking, Gotorama or... maybe, yes: it's the mighty suberb quality of my EUR 39,99 "Just Quality" DVD/CD player - proudly Made in China!!!

... to be continued...

... maybe I'm a bit late, BUT I'm still a Deadhead in my soul... for thread-sake: there is a tune on Grateful Dead's "So many Roads 1965 - 1995", a superb cloth-linered 5-disks box-set FULL of gems, in the Dick's Picks vein, which shaken the Heaven's Doors, where Jerry Garcia is, since he departed from Earth...
Wash your hands to do not mar the classy clear linen while handling ... and on disk "2", track "5" - you'll find the Watkins Glen's Sound Check!
It isn't a simple, conventional "sound-check", but a jam of the highest quality, followed by a Dark Star Jam to die for... anyway: on Watkins Glen's, Phil Lesh's hollowbody, super-duper custom-made bass is REALLY going down... I measured a true (-3 dbs) mighty 40 hz on my IVIE IE-30... it's growling, rumbling, yet clear and first quality bass notes, scales, harmonics... my speakers smile, the Westrex' woofers are smoothly massaged down to every Alnico cell from the very Best ever.
Really superb music... BUT you're already aware of this, don't you?!?!
A winner!

Cambodian audiophile scene... "Horns around the World" trip goes on...

My wife just returned from her two weeks in Laos and Cambodia's trip... she was quite scared to come back... no, not worried about home and her beloved little hairy dog Chicco (or myself, despite my several defects and flaws;-))... but well-tuned to the different clocking character of life in these exotic, so different places.
I had to manage about 1500+ digital pixes she shot, so had the rare opportunity, scaled down, to feel what she saw and smelled and tasted.
... BUT of the several images I saw, some really intrigued and knocked me: a threesome monks group in a Cambodia old monastery... playing Carlos Santana's cool guitar solos through a grunge, FANTASTIC, humble, cool little horn mono-system: a Temple-Blaster.
... no joints-smoke involved, but youth and music and audio gears are something which bond people everywhere.
... dedicated to the detractors of horns: strange also in those secluded places, someone took his ass out to build such a scary naked, but nonetheless, HORN-BASED mono system to enjoy music with guts and soul!
A cheaper, easier single speaker would have worked the same... but NO! They used horn speakers and, super-cool, battery fed amps... no surprise... an audiophile is an audiophile, everywhere!
Those young monks used an old battered, Mekong-river rescued metal horn and driver... maybe dumped and repaired... rust and mud inside the crappy amp, BUT music flowed, my wife told me... who knows the full story about this pieces of gear!?!
... enjoy, music-lover friends... and thanks, Mariella for the pictures and story!

... and Death always & unfortunately scores and wins: John Martyn died on Jan. 29th, 2009!

John martyn, the great singer, guitar player, musician, the author of "Solid Air" and others immortal songs, died yesterday Jan. 29th, 2009.

John Martyn

... few, VERY few musicians were so influential, yet free to follow their ispiration and soul... Bless the weather, Inside Out, Solid Air (dedicated to his friend Nick Drake), The Tumbler and many others tunes are deeply carved in my memory and have been a soundtrack to my life... again, World is a poorer place since yesterday.

Rocky Mountain Audio Festival 2008 and Consumer Electronic Show 2009 reports

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An interesting, truly magnificient report from last Audio Consumer Show...

CES 2009's report with HD pixes 2D4

and

from last October 2008 RMAF...

RMAF 2008's report - please notice Schick's arm with Kimura Labs RS-3 Rotary-headshell and Otono-Edison Miyajima Labs. "Shilabe" cartridge... WOW!

... hey, pals... as we go, we MUST talk about first rate gears... like when chatting about cars, it's MUCH more intriguing and cool to talk about the last Porsche 911 or Ferrari... instead of a shitty, old, battered ".........." (instructions: fill-in the blank with your personal idea of such an "hens-cage mobile";-)))

Thanks to Loredana Livolsi, Robin Wyatt, Joe Roberts and Roman Bessnow.

The Grand Canyon Syndrome

Everyone who had the breeze - yours truly, humbly, included - to play alive in front of an audience, small or large isn't important... well, those know what I'm talking about!
The Grand Canyon Syndrome, which is illness and drug together, happens at first notes, no... few milliseconds before the first notes.
I experienced it twice in my life as a part-time musician: you don't see anyone in the audience because of the lights, and your senses are experiencing an utmost attention, you hear the electrons in the air;-), feel, more than smelling, the heavy purple colour curtain in front of you, while it's ineluttably opening... it's like you're on the threshold of the Grand Canyon, with no ropes or parachute... instead with an uneseful wooden instrument in yr. hands... as inappropriate as wearing a scuba-suit while going at yr. first date with a lady.
I swear I "felt" this... and you know people is over there, in the dark, dozens and dozens eyes, brains, hearts all waiting for anything you'll decide to do: you can freaky go laughing, playing with a reversed guitar, farting... you feel omnipotent, invincible and SOOOOO naked... by convention, tradition and common sense, anyone seated at the center of a stage with an acoustic guitar is perceived as a musician, not a juggler or a freak... so the vertigo, the threshold-like sensation, like it came, it goes... and fingers go and sound spreads... like World goes on.
I recently acquired from a friend the complete series of EMI "Reflexe" - "Stationen Europaischer Musik" in ten record-boxes... about 70 records in 120 percent unplayed conditions, which my friend purchased back in the '70s - one every month, as they were quite expensive in their hey days - because, as he told me: "... he liked the covers..."
I had, bought in the years, maybe a dozen sparse issues from this huge goldmine of good taste, good music and good playing and care for details (cloth covered boxes, recording, liner notes, playing) truly coming from a lesser rushy time... but when I finally purchased the whole lot, I felt like I finally closed a circle.
I'm lovingly, fondly exploring this "opus magna" with respect, like walking in a temple where monks meditate... and... amazing, I'm playing on my turntable a disc of lute duets: Paul O'Dette and Hopkinson Smith and, to my surprise... I feel, clearly hear and feel, the above sense of (musicians) being behind a threshold, like in real life... a palpable sense of wait before the first note flowing, the air at the recording venue is thick, solid... not noisy, despite the usual beloved (of mine) birds singing in the background, but "still"... like before it rains.
... when Music flows, at last... it's an orgasm, a fire which gently move the air in my music room, as well... air which is about 30 years old, but real air; in the record(s) pauses the sense of an "event", more than simply a "listening" is dramatic.
Like Frank Zappa's Peter Occhiogrosso bio reading, they should play these records in the primary schools... sure more and more youngers would choose music, instead of... a lesser life in a lesser world.

Music, analog audio and the art of cooking

Rare, expensive, sought after... but would you eat a raw white truffle? Was thinking about this no-reply question... a no-problem, would say. Why?
As you know I'm an avid music lover and an humble audio experimenter and searcher, (almost) never afraid or worried to try, be wrong first to be right later on... knowing, learning, trying and trying again... and thinking and being curious about things.
My limit, maybe, the words to explain my findings, but tireless and sincere, nonetheless.
The above to be better understood, 'cause something strange is going on, folks... music listening at home and the noble art of analog audio fine tuning isn't sure the bigger problem humanity has these days... Israel, recession, air-wrecks, crisis, wars... yes, I know: world isn't a quiet place and my chatting could prove too light... but I'm sure that like my mother told decades ago, if people love (more) flowers (nature), Music, pets (nature again)and cooking there would not be wars anymore... I love ALL the above and, I'm - pretty sure - not alone.
Cooking: I quoted above... it's a matter of care, luck, science, adventure and art... the greatest recipes came from chefs who tried a lot, worked hard to learn their skill, but most of all, they did their homeworks: respectfully leaerned and loved tradition, then re-reworked it, sometimes combining unfriendly stuffs - i.e. salt and sweet, fruit and vegetables, fish and meat, local and ethnic, too... eating awful, filthy meals, maybe, to find the rarest of rare: haute-cuisine, creative cooking - i.e. best raw ingredients with most proper aesthetic, quantity and perfect tasting, a nectar, a summa, a great dish is able to hint memories of childhood, travels, a love.. and still being palatable to any non-esoteric mouth and wallet. Easy, isn't it?!?
But... what about the above mentioned white truffles?... who in the world would eat such a gem out of the dirt?... a truffle needs a fresh egg, a pasta to be at its best, complete.
... so, analog audio art of fine tuning: arm, turntable, cartridge and related stuffs sound, NOW, much better and noble and "right", isn't it?!? It's not in any given part, but in the sum of them.
I was thinking quite often since some weeks ago to give a try to an accessory I guessed would have improved my 301 Shindo: a Micro CU-180 copper mat, weird, expensive, weighting 1800 grams, or if you prefere 1,8 kilos and costing an arm and a leg.
Must be crazy, I guessed... then my friend Alessandro posted a pix of one of his 301 with... a CU-180!
Beautiful it sure was, but he didn't say nothing about the sound he obtained.... and curiosity kills the cat, pals;-)
I took a pause, then, few days ago, after some WEB surfing, I found the most variable price-tags... say from EUR 300 to 1K... found an affordable deal and I bought it... voilà!
My CU-180 arrived in nice shape, and after cleaning it from fingerprints of previous owner, I gave a first listen, at last.
My 301 Shindo uses a gun-metal 6 kilos platter and a leaded cloth mat weighting 800 grams... I was using one of my piano-red felt mat, then the Shindo mat, then a pig-skin mat, then record... WOW... completely nut, you'll say, but it's like combining a recipe, blending components for a dish... I listened to several combinations and the one I described above was the last and better sounding.
... I began to change mats, like ingredients of a recipe, and newly combine them, with the new CU-180: platter, Shindo's mat, CU-180... blaaaaah... awful results.
OK, I've been wrong and wasted money... it's a cool mat, BUT doesn't work, I guessed... re-try: platter, wool, CU-180 and pig-skin... better, slightly better, BUT still prefering the previously used combo... enough for this evening, I told myself, a couple days ago.
This evening, in the right mood, gave a re-try: here we go... platter, wool felt mat, pig-skin AND CU-180... gave a listen and I'm listening right now...
... I'd must say... EUREKA... always same VTA, so no possiblity to be fooled... it's a matter of materials matching, taming or resonating in a different way, vinyl and cartridge make a lot of... confusion, sometimes.
So what? I'm amazed, I began listening to a couple of well-known records: lute music, Toyohiko Satoh on Telefunken playing Mouton, de Visee and other French composers... recorded in a church in Haarlem, The Netherlands and my beloved "birds and lute" disc... Anthony Bailes on German EMI Reflexe and again french composers... Tonmeister Johann-Nikolaus Matthes did a masterpiece, in transparence and trueness, BUT most of all... the masterpiece is what I'm able to listen to... it's not a merit of a single "ingredient", but an holy, heavenly match found by chance!
I can't describe the TONS of air and inner micro-details appears like new... from a recording I VERY intimately know... the sensation, the feeling is like I'm able to walk behind the musician, I swear, and hear utterly clear birds singing, being able to understand if their singing come from the roof of recording venue or lower, out of the window... and cars and people chatting during a pause in the recording which I NEVER heard before... Incredibile! Staggering! Mind-boggling! Epoustouflant!
Would describe it as a lysergic experience... better: an "open-chakra mode" kind-of experience... the problem, I told you, are the words.
Nothing special, anyway... as a chef I found the right butter and the freshest egg for a magnificient white truffle my dog found in the wood. It's no hype, just hearing... plain and simple as breathing.
What's utterly important is - again - I'm a step nearer to Music.
That's it and nothing matters than this.